Tuesday, February 26, 2008

By-election hype: Picardgate (is it really Picardgate yet?)

Ramy Sonbl, who is featured on this section of the blog, has just raised serious concerns about the validity of the election rules.

According to Sonbl, the decision to raise the number of signatures on the nomination forms, from 25 to 50, was approved at the BOA, but the changes were set to take effect on May 1st.

Here is article 4.6.1. of the SFUO Constitution:

But According to the constitution that is available at the moment on the SFUO website
4.6.1
The Chief Electoral Officer must ensure that all nominations:
(a) specify the position solicited;
(b) are signed by at least twenty-five (25) members of the Federation;
(c) are signed by the candidate, and indicate her acceptance of the nomination;

As mentioned above, the Election rules require 50 signatures.

Constitution v. Election rules.

Picard has at least one supporter to let him run: Ramy Sonbl.

For those wondering, Chief electoral officer, Sylvia Havard-Lewis is in Mexico.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note: Constitution always trumps the election rules if they're in conflict. Always.


Ramy's incorrect though. The only section that was effective May 1 2008 was the structure itself - not the nomination rules.

Anonymous said...

Ramy never makes much sense - in writing, or verbally.

This instance is no exception. If its true that Picard (or his goons) only got 31 signatures by the deadline, he should not run. Its simple...follow the rules or don't. Then, accept the consequences.

Picard just can't imagine a life without a left-wing, student funded campaign to work on while being paid with student's money.

He should get a life. So should his goons - I assume Cheevers, Fancie, Cote, or Lehn are behind this. All four should take a hike with Picard and find something better to do.

Anonymous said...

Ryan is correct, everything else took effect immediately. I just looked at the minutes.

the problem now is how come the constitution that is available to the public not updated.

anonymous:

If you ever like a clarification of what I am saying, I am more then happy to give it to you

Secondly,
if "his goons" as you would like to put were following the constitution online they are not at fault for not having an updated version of the constitution public. I rarely see eye-to-eye with Picard and his politics, but everyone deserves a fair chance and that no one can deny

Awaiting Reply

Ramy S

Anonymous said...

Well put Ramy!

Philippe said...

Not that I really care what people who don't have the guts to use their real name have to say, but...

"So should his goons - I assume Cheevers, Fancie, Cote, or Lehn are behind this."

Whether you agree with someone's politics, I think statements such as this are extremely reductive and insulting to people like Mike C, Mike F, Celeste or Faris, who have done more than their share of volunteer work and overtime work for students on this campus. Even if they support one candidate in the elections it is immensely unfair to give them a drone-like role, and this whole attitude of minimizing individuals is what I like least about politics, especially student politics.

Anonymous said...

All these people knew. To blame it on the executive for not having a document is finding a convenient way out of something you were all to familiar with. Picard ran two weeks earlier with I'd assume 50 signatures...there is no excuse.

The election rules say 50, the forms say 50 and indeed an update constitution would say 50. All of these people know that. In fact, Picard voted for the change in constitution to 50 and it would be his job to, you know, "communicate" these changes with the students.

One law for all - its a simple concept.

Anonymous said...

I KNEW IT....Francois asked me to come to his house and he tried to drug me and he kept repeating the words "you are my goon, you have no ideas of your own, you are a goon..."

clearly.

Hi everyone, My name is Faris Lehn and apparently i am a goon.

Though that post was funny it was kind of insulting.
First of all, I did not even know that Picard was a candidate till early last week.
That is weeks after another presidential candidate had approached me for help.
I did not sign Picards nomination because i did not even know it was going around. NOTE: i along with hundreds of student would have, and want to sign it. Buts thats not here nor there.

I want to thank the anonymous poster for giving the students the truth, that Picard has in fact been the head of a cult. With rat poison and Bjork music he has slowly worked his magic and gatherd his army of goons.
Heres hoping i can break away.

heres hoping people ease up on the conspiracy theories.

Francois has worked so hard over the last three years on the campus. To say that he should get lost is so insulting to all students. Where i might disagree with the views of some people, i never want them to 'get lost.' the more people we have working on issues that matter to students the better. No matter where their views rest.

Philippe said...

"the more people we have working on issues that matter to students the better. No matter where their views rest."

Good point, Faris.

We have to step a bit outside of our world of student politics enthusiasts to realize that everywhere between 80% and 90% students don't care at all. It puts the internal little personality fights in perspective.

Anonymous said...

Ok.

IT'S LEWIS-HAVARD, FOR PETE'S SAKE!

Anonymous said...

I put a motion forward to not keep Anonymous in this discution lol

Goons come on, they aren't even intimidating.

PS the constitution is flawed it does not carry the same weight in french or english

Anonymous said...

It is kind of ironic here... Picard is upset that the document that he was, reasonably speaking, responsible for disseminating was not properly disseminated...

Not to mention that he himself had collected the prerequisite signatures once and was thus aware of the requirement.

Furthermore, if it was not him that collected the signatures what does that say about his commitment? He was in France, yes, but not coordinating his campaign? Seems highly suspect.

Well, any way it is likely that he will lose again... And I doubt that he necessarily deserves the 'gate' suffix.